Re: Igbo Apprenticeship System Makes People Hate the Igbos – Aisha Yesufu -By Rees Chikwendu

I have read and listened to some people who think there is nothing wrong with the recent statement made by Aisha Yesufu on the Igbo apprenticeship system, which stirred up a debate.

To these people, it was her opinion, and nothing wrong with it.

If there is nothing wrong with Aisha Yesufu’s opinion, in the eyes of these people, there is also nothing wrong with providing counter-opinion based on facts. It is one thing to have an ill-informed opinion that does not tell the whole truth and another to make an opinion based on evidence. When it comes to Nigeria and its narratives on the Igbos, we must always scrutinize it. For me, as an Igbo, it’s not negotiable.

Importantly, Nigeria and its people are very good at promoting dangerous narratives to malign the Igbos. Sometimes, they cherry-pick their information to demonize the Igbos subtly. To put on a critical thinking cap to investigate such information doesn’t always come easy for many people, especially some Igbos who put on the public facade of detribalized Nigerians.

Critical thinking is being able to evaluate the information you have access to critically. It is a necessary skill because some people are very good at positively presenting negative information. People like Aisha Yesufu present information in a way that makes things seem as positive as possible without telling the audience the whole truth. Such a spin of information out there is very dangerous, and Nigeria and its people are very good at this, always looking for opportunities to harm Igbos through their dangerous narratives.

Those who are easily deceived by such a narrative are only the gullible. Skeptics like me have no other option than to provide counter-argument based on logic and evidence rather than emotion.

What does Nigeria want from the Igbos?

The Igbos have given (almost) everything to Nigeria, and it still keeps taking from them. In exchange for what they have given to Nigeria, they have got nothing but marginalization – economic and political oppression. Is it blood? The Igbo have paid with millions of lives killed by Nigeria. So, I ask again, what does Nigeria want from the Igbos?

In the first place, the Igbo apprenticeship system, which has created more millionaires than Harvard University, is an ingenious business system that the Igbo people designed to uplift themselves from Nigeria’s oppression that exists till this day. Since the genocidal war of 1967-70, Nigeria has continued to punish the Igbo people from all corners. After the war, Nigeria took everything away from the Igbos, and they had to start all over from scratch – the modern birth of the Igbo apprenticeship system.

Today, there is no argument that the Igbo people rank top in Nigeria’s education system. Yearly statistics out of Nigeria have shown clearly that students from Igbo states and regions always come top in national examinations. Even the cut-off marks to gain admission into Nigerian schools are the highest in Igbo states. Yet, these students, when they graduate from universities, are deliberately denied Nigeria’s employment opportunities. Instead of giving opportunities to the best brains, Musa or Femi are given such opportunities, not minding their qualifications.

The economic policy of Nigeria’s target is always to stifle Igbo businesses. For example, Muhammadu Buhari’s southern border closure policy, ostensibly aimed at crippling the Igbo trade since Igbos dominate Nigeria’s import and export businesses.

Nigeria exhibiting apartheid policy excludes Igbos from billions of dollars of foreign loans. Even though the Igbos produce a large part of the country’s wealth, Nigeria’s government starves the Igbos of its capital investments and development projects.

Although the Igbos are one of the three major nations in Nigeria and the constitution stipulates the Federal Character Principle in appointments and other national matters, but, in Nigeria’s dirty politics, the exclusion of Igbos from all key government positions is not new. Of course, to Aisha Yesufu, the Igbos deserve these punishments and must also beg Nigerians to open their brains to learn an open business system they created.

The Igbo apprenticeship system is not responsible for the hatred of Nigerians towards the Igbos. Wickedness and hatred are innate in Nigerians because they are the epitome of the heart of darkness. The hatred of Nigerians towards the Igbos pre-dates the modern Igbo apprenticeship system.

To discount the oppression and sufferings of the Igbos who have given everything to Nigeria and still blame them for their hard work and ingenuity is complete madness. Any Igbo who considers this biased opinion as ‘nothing wrong’ is either gullible or wants to be seen as a detribalized Nigerian.

Rees Chikwendu